One thought on “BTTF Minute 106 – Jigsaw Saturday Night”

At the library where I work, we have to have a special kind of tape when we’re trying to do simple repairs to books, like when there’s pages falling out. Basically, that tape has to be thicker than the regular kind because over the years, regular tape will degrade until it sort of starts flaking, IIRC. So, part of me wants to say that the tape repairs were recent because of how the edges of the tears aged — there’s visible dark lines across the paper. On the other hand, why would Doc have waited so long to repair the paper?

(What’s hilarious is that there’s an interview with Bob Gale where he mentions that a viewer in Japan noticed that the prop letter in 1955 and the letter in 1985 aren’t the same exact letter. Like, some words are on different lines and such. :D)

As for why they’re still in the same house, think about it this way: The main drag of Lyon Estates is visible in 1955 as a dirt road, and there’s a sign advertising the housing development. And what’s one of the ways to show that you’re richer than other people? To live outside of the city limits, because being able to drop money for gas frequently is a sign that you get paid a lot in your job. You can afford a house in the newest, ritziest suburb, and a nice car that will bring you into town for your very important job.

Not only that, but if you’re already planning a suburb there, it could easily have been built in 5-10 years, depending on how quickly the houses go up. If they have the exact same floorplan, it might even be easier because it’s really just a case of “here’s the master bedroom, here’s the bathrooms, here’s the kitchen, other bedrooms, other rooms, done, move on.”

Maybe buying the house outright was even a wedding present from their parents (either the McFlys or the Baineses)? Since the game argues that Arthur became an accountant, and Sylvia at least got some training in accounting so that she could’ve been an accountant too, they could’ve easily have socked away enough money to buy their only son a house for his family. Either that, or maybe Mom and Dad McFly died, left George a ridiculous amount of money, and George was able to use it as a down payment on the house. In the original timeline, they could’ve been the white trash of the neighborhood — they barely afford the mortgage payments, or maybe they even just rent — but now they’re the Right Kind of People, and are invited to the block parties and gossip with neighbors and such.

The 30-year thing could be as a deliberate mirror of what Marty went through. Marty went back 30 years, maybe Doc thought of it as a bit of verisimilitude. And heck, it would give him a chance to meet Marty when he’s 47, so he can see what happens to his friend. (If Doc was born in 1914, he would’ve been 101 in 2015, if he lived to be that old. Judging from Doc’s attitude, he was deliberately going forward to make sure he didn’t bump into himself.)

Since Marty got to meet him when he was in his 40s in 1955, there’s the nice bonus of getting to see Marty when he’s older, too.